Q&A: James Nesbitt chats 'Monroe'!

James Nesbitt has been keeping pretty busy recently. The former Cold Feet star is currently over in New Zealand getting ready to film The Hobbit, but before all that he's starring in ITV's brand new medical drama Monroe. The show follows Nesbitt's character - the neuroscientist Gabriel Monroe - as he tries to balance his career and his personal life! We gave James a ring to find out about the show, whether it's the British version of House, and if he would be open to a Cold Feet reunion...

Can you tell us a bit about Monroe?"It's a drama about a neurosurgeon called Gabriel Monroe who is - like all neurosurgeons as I think we discovered from our research - rather brilliant. He does an extraordinary job. His life is in a bit of disarray and he's a bit flawed. He's not very good at examining his own life or his own head, but he's very good at looking into other people's heads and removing all the tumours and badness that lies within. It's written by Pete Bowker - I worked with Pete recently on Occupation. He's my favorite writer, really. He had his own experience of neurosurgery when his daughter, who was 4 at the time, had a brain tumour. I think he was fascinated by this notion of handing over the love of his life to someone who was going to open up her brain and try to remove this thing. It was the combination of Pete and the director Paul McGuigan - who directed Sherlock - and David Moore, the next director, and a very good team and a very good cast - Sarah Parish and Tom Riley. It just made it a very exciting prospect. And it's something that I enjoyed immensely, and I hope it's good. I think it's funny and it really has very human stories at the center of it."

You mentioned Sarah Parish - how does Monroe get on with her character?"Yeah, good. Well, not good at all actually - I get on with her very well! She plays a cardiac surgeon... I think often there is great rivalry between neurosurgeons and cardiac surgeons. I think I maybe have a bit of bias with neurosurgeons' opinion that nothing tops neurosurgery! But that makes for a quite interesting conflict between the two. And then Tom Riley - who is a brilliant young actor - he's caught in between. There are many different stories and Pete is so good at that. He's a very intelligent writer but he's incredibly accessible. He's got incredible range but this obviously having had personal issues for him in a way may carry more weight for him as a writer."

How does Monroe balance his career and his personal life?"The work-life balance is pretty imbalanced, really. In a way, his home is the hospital. They're so committed, these people, and so driven. I mean, they're kind of fanatic about what they do in a sense. They spend so much time in hospital they're often rarely at home and I think if you look at the divorce rate of surgeons it's pretty high. I think it has an impact in the same way that in Occupation, going off to war meant in a sense that your true friends were your soldiers. In a way I think that's the case in Monroe. His home life suffers hugely. His life is in disarray but meanwhile he's putting lives back together and I think that conflict makes for great drama. It's also very funny because I think when you open up people's heads in such a brutal way and then you're gallantly trying to remove these ugly tumours and cancers, I think if you didn't have a sense of humor you'd go mad. The operations that I saw - and I saw four or five - humor plays a very important part in the theatre in keeping everyone buoyant and keeping them going and keeping them focused."

You mentioned you saw some surgeries - were you squeamish?"I thought I would be. I didn't really fancy it at all! But I was fascinated. I was right up close - I was standing as close to a brain as I'm standing to my hand when I look at it now. And at the beginning of the first operation, one of the preeminent surgeons Henry Marsh - I saw him standing over this guy's head that was opened up and there was his brain and he just pointed to a little area and he said, 'You see that, James? That's thought'. I mean, what's not to find fascinating about that? It was a real privilege actually. It's pretty brutal when they go into the head. To get through that bone takes a lot of force and it can be like a building site sometimes."

Monroe has been described as a British version of House - do you think that's fair?"I think they're very different. I hadn't seen House before and I've only just started watching it here in New Zealand. It's wonderful but I think it's very, very different. I can understand people making the comparison but I think the lives are different, the characters are very, very different. I just think it's a different setup and I think when you start watching Monroe, I kind of think you don't really think of House at all. I hope not. But if people like it half as much as they like House, we'll be doing alright!"

Do you want to make another series of Monroe then?"Yes! There you have it, right from the horse's mouth. I'd love to."

Why should people tune in to watch Monroe?"I think because they're human stories. For a start, Pete's a brilliant writer. It's funny. It's a fascinating world. People love watching medical dramas - they also love watching documentaries about the workings of the brain. I think the look of it is very unusual. And we all have a sense of mortality for ourselves and for our families and Monroe deals with all these things. Also, I think we're fascinated by characters like that, who have a brilliance that we don't possess but also have very human flaws which we all recognize. I think that's something that appeals to people hopefully."

We've got to ask the Cold Feet question - when we spoke to Helen Baxendale recently she said she'd be open to a reunion. What are your thoughts - would you go back?"Well yeah, I guess. I loved working with Helen, I loved working with them all. People have sort of [asked] me [about it] but I heard nothing about the reunion. But you know... I'd be very happy to revisit what was such a good time and such a positive impact on my career. I'm happy to consider all offers."